2009 IT Salary Guide

The 2009 IT Salary Guide indicates that average starting salaries will increase by 3.7 percent over 2008 levels. This modest boost  a step down from last years 5.3 percent increase  reflects the toll that today's gloomy economy is exacting on company revenues.

The 2009 IT Salary Guide is here. See how your salary measures up against industry averages for many tech positions in the United States, broken down by specialty and region.

Still, it's heartening to note that IT unemployment remains relatively low, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Furthermore, the 2009 IT Salary Guide, published by Robert Half Technology, suggests demographic trends will create a healthy job market in the years ahead. These multi-year trends include declining numbers of college graduates prepared for the IT sector and a wave of vintage Baby Boomers eager to vacate the working world.

Indeed, a whopping 77 percent of the CIOs Robert Half interviewed revealed that it is equally as challenging  or even more so  to find skilled IT applicants than it was a year ago.

A number of industries are expected to hire IT professionals at a notable clip. These include healthcare, which is projected to create more jobs than any other industry between 2006 and 2016; education, a sector propelled by the burgeoning e-learning market; and (of course) high tech, which companies continue to look to for competitive advantage.

In most companies, skilled tech talent continues to be at a premium, particularly in areas like Java, SQL Server, SharePoint and .NET development. It's not unusual for these experts to receive multiple job offers. Enjoying a robust spike in interest is Web 2.0 development, as businesses move still more of their operations online.

A Robert Half survey of 1,400 CIOs reveals the following IT skills are in greatest demand:

Network administration (70 percent)

Windows administration (69 percent)

Desktop support (69 percent)

Database management (58 percent)

Wireless network management (47 percent)

Telecommunications support (44 percent)

Web development/Website design (42 percent)

Business intelligence/reporting services (33 percent)

Virtualization (32 percent)

.NET development (22 percent)

CRM implementation (22 percent)

ERP implementation (20 percent)

Linux/Unix administration (20 percent)

Java development (17 percent)

Open source development (17 percent)

XML development (17 percent)

IT Salaries by Specialty

Based on data from Robert Half Technology, the 2009 IT Salary Guide lists salaries for a broad range of IT professionals, from software developer to systems administrator to help desk manager. The Guide also provides data about pay levels for regions across the United States, and suggests salary incentives for related tech skills (such as C++, Oracle database, Cisco network, or Visual Basic skills).

The IT Salary Guide also lists salary levels going back (in some cases) to 2006, which allows IT staffers to compare rate of pay increases for various job titles.